The Poisoning of Sergei Skripal

Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal has been poisoned in England in what looks to be a repeat attempt of the Russian state sanctioned murder of Alexander Litvinenko.

On Sunday March 4, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia Skripal were found slumped over on a shopping center bench in Salisbury, England. They were rushed to the hospital where they currently remain in critical condition. The case soon took on the characteristics of a Cold War spy thriller as it was learned that Sergei Skripal was a former Russian spy and the cause of his and his daughter’s illness was revealed to be nerve agent. At initial glance the incident looks like a repeat of the Alexander Litvinenko case in 2006, making it possibly the second time in recent memory that a former Russian spy was mysteriously poisoned in Britain.

The Skripal case is currently unfolding, but what is known about is that Yulia Skripal was a colonel in the Russian military who served as an intelligence officer. In 2006 he was convicted in Russia of passing identities of Russian intelligence agents working undercover in Europe to Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency. He was sentenced to 13 years. In 2010 he was released, along with several other prisoners, in exchange for ten Russian spies arrested by the FBI in the United States.

The case seems similar to that of Alexander Litvinenko who was also poisoned in Britain. Litvinenko was a former Russian FSB agent who accused Vladimir Putin of being behind the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. In 2006 he became seriously ill after meeting two former Soviet KGB agents in a London restaurant. He died after a few weeks in what was later to be determined as a poisoning by a radioactive element that is mostly found in Russia. A subsequent investigation by British authorities determined the assassination was a state sponsored event.

It remains unclear as of yet how Britain would react to what appears to be Russia’s latest international transgression. Theresa May held a security meeting and later suggested that a first step could be a British boycott of the World Cup being hosted in Russia. These kinds of cases are often hard to prove culpability despite their brazen nature.

Update: On March 2 Britain announced it will expel 23 Russian diplomats in response to the nerve agent attack on Sergei Skripal after analysis showed the nerve agent used in the attack was in all probability made by the Russian government. Russia responded by expelling 23 British diplomats shortly after. On March 27, the United States and Western allies expelled more than 100 Russian diplomats in a move of solidarity with Britain over the Skripal affair. Russia once again has threatened to retaliate.

What is your opinion about the subject of this article? Leave a comment below.

Brian F. Bridgeforth is a social media political commentator with a background that includes advising and managing political campaigns at local, state, and federal levels. His social media activities have caught the attention of CNN and the Wall Street Journal along with many politically oriented blogs. Brian has been writing about foreign affairs and international relations since 2016.

Newsletter Subscribe

Follow on Twitter

Follow on Facebook

Recent Posts

Last week while President Trump was attending the failed negotiations with Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, his former lawyer and “fixer,” Michael Cohen, gave damning testimony in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. ...

It can be argued that Donald Trump really needed badly to come home from the historic Hanoi Summit with North Korea leader Kim Jong-un with a deal. The summit was overshadowed by Trump’s domestic woes ...

Nigerians went to the polls on February 23 and reelected their president, Muhammadu Buhari. The outcome was uncertain going into election day as Buhari was in a close race with his main rival, Atiku Abubakar, ...

After announcing his intentions of withdrawing from the INF Treaty (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty) in October, President Donald Trump officially began the process of U.S. withdrawal on February 2. President Trump cited Russia’s alleged violations ...

The Democratic Republic of Congo finally has a new leader after years of misrule by Joseph Kabila. On January 24, Félix Tshisekedi was sworn in as the country’s new leader, however, his legitimacy is a ...